In All Honesty

Prologue

In all honesty, Kurama would admit that this was the first time in years that he was surprised like that, no, baffled was more like it. He had resigned himself to living a life behind those wretched bars some years ago and despite himself he was still quite bitter about it. Every time he thought about Madara Uchiha he imagined himself violently thrusting a sharp claw through his chest and eating him while he was still alive, grinning as some of that despicable man's blood trickled down his muzzle whilst his innards were crushed in the strong vice of his sharp, gleaming teeth…

But he might draw out Madara's last, suffering moments a bit longer. He hadn't quite decided yet.

It was during one of these morbid fantasies that Kurama heard feet splashing through the murky water which surrounded his prison. Angry at being disturbed from one of the few pastimes he took enjoyment out of, Kurama felt that it was only right that the person should be scared off of his turf. Permanently.

However, what Kurama expected and what he would get were entirely two different things. He was expecting an adult to come charging through those doors infront of him. Not that.

There, standing timidly at the doors, was a child.

The child, Kurama saw, was undisputedly female and very young, being only five years old at most with pale skin which contrasted glaringly with the long, dark red hair falling from her head like spilt ink. Her clothes were little too big for her and her bare feet were battered and bruised from the harsh ground with which they were forced to meet with every day. What caught Kurama's attention in particular were her eyes; which were a very startling light blue that seemed to glow against the morbid setting in which he lived in.

Those admittedly pretty blue orbs were not focused on him though, as she could not see him through the shadows of his prison; a fact Kurama was thankful for. He knew that when enough time had passed she would go away and return to the world of reality. Even though Kurama was known as the evil entity called Kyuubi, he did had standards. He would not waste his time scaring away a young child of only four or five years old. He had a lot of patience, and would surely outlast the time it would take the girl to disappear entirely from his prison.

Then the girl surprised Kurama yet again. Instead of leaving, she walked right up to the gates of his prison. Inspecting it with a critical eye that he was sure he never saw in any other human quite that young. Then, she moved her gaze upwards to meet his own eyes, her bright eyes peered at his own fiery crimson orbs, in a stubborn defiance. Bewildered that she could see through the shadows which engulfed most of the prison; Kurama moved forward into the light so that she would see him properly. The girl's widened at what lay before her.

Kurama knew perfectly that the very sight of him would scare any sane human out of their wits; his large figure dwarfed that of the girls by so much that it was hardly fare to compare the two of them. He even half expected her to faint with fright, but this did not happen. Unfortunately.

Staring at him, she tilted her head as she asked. "Who are you?"

The question was spoken with so much sincerity and innocence that Kurama found himself stunned into temporary silence. She did not know him? The great Kurama? The feared nine tailed fox demon?

Kurama growled, making the young girl flinch in fright. "I think it is I whose right it is to ask who you claim to be. You who dares to stand before me, in my territory!"

The girl flinched, and it was then that Kurama realised that she did not know what he was saying. How could he expect her too? A four or five year old human being could not answer yet alone understand a question spoken with the words he had used. He begrudgingly reiterated his question, albeit a bit simpler.

"I asked who are you imp?"

The girl looked down and shuffled her feet. She mumbled something under her breath, but even Kurama's acute hearing could not manage to pick up exactly what she said.

"Speak up! You cannot expect me to hear you while you mutter!"

The girl then seemed to snap out of her fear that he had instilled in her. The fiery, childlike defiance was ablaze in her eyes once more. "My name's Naruto Uzumaki, who are you?!"

The fox mulled over her last name. He wondered how he could have been so stupid, how he could think that just anyone could enter his prison. No, this was his latest jinchuuriki: Naruto Uzumaki. Who was also the daughter of Kushina Uzumaki, the jinchuuriki before her. He growled slightly, silently praying to kami that the young girl had not inherited her mother's temper.

He kept this to himself however, and graced her with a question which he knew would send her childish mind into a poorly withheld rage.

"Naruto? What idiot decided they would name their female child a male name. Humans are the most idiotic creatures to ever grace this planet!"

Naruto may not have understood the latter of what he just said, but she understood well what he had said first. She shouted in outrage. "I don't care if I have a boy's name! I like my name, it sounds pretty. Yours sounds like poop!"

Instead of arguing back like Naruto was expecting him to, Kurama chuckled, showing off his razor sharp teeth.

"You know…" Kurama started, "You are either very brave, or very stupid. I suppose though that you are very young, and you don't know fully when to be afraid. I will give you the benefit of the doubt though and hope you are not this stupid when you are older. My name however, you do not know, so don't you dare form an opinion on it!"

Getting the jist of what Kurama was saying, Naruto gulped, then nodded slowly. She stood there staring at him, like she had something on her mind which she had wanted to ask about but was too scared to pursue an answer. The more she refrained from speaking, the more Kurama got annoyed. "If you have a question then speak it."

"Where am I?"

The question was unexpected and quick with a lot of different outcomes depending on how he answered it. Should he tell the truth? It was obvious that she did not know of her jinchuuriki status and that her being here was some sort of freak accident. He did not know why the humans did not tell her she was his prison, the only barrier between him and the outside world. He supposed the reason to be good by human standards. But alas, and unfortunately for the girl, he was not human.

"You are in your mind." Kurama replied bluntly.

Naruto looked up at him, her brow furrowed in confusion. "If this is inside my head, then why are you here too? Go back to your own head!"

Kurama did not predict having to explain his predicament to a four year old. Although if he was lucky he would get a laugh out of the dismal situation: she might run off and cry at the revelation. "Tell me brat, have you heard of a story involving a nine tailed fox?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, old-man hokage told me about it. That on my birthday four years ago, a really bad fox tried to attack the leaf village. Then the fourth hokage appeared to save them from the fox, he then killed the fox, and the leaf village was happy. But the fourth died as well, and the village cried after he died, and then old-man hokage became hokage again!"

Kurama noticed how happy Naruto looked when she retold a story she had probably heard many times, and how she had come to believe it was fact. Somewhere, deep within the recesses of his heart and mind, Kurama felt guilty about what he was going to do.

But only just a little.

"Brat, what that old man told you was wrong, he told you a lie."

Naruto adopted a look of disbelief, feeling a little affronted, she protested. "But old-man hokage never lies, and everyone knows the same thing, so it's true!"

Kurama sighed again, manoeuvring himself until he was he was lying down in more comfortable position. "A being of conscious thought will and must lie at one point in their lives; this does not exclude your old man."

"What did he lie about?"

"When the nine tailed fox attacked the leaf village, the fourth Hokage did not kill it, he couldn't, the fox was too powerful, too strong and all around too perfect…" Kurama stopped to cough; he had the decency to feel a little sheepish. "-to be killed by a mere human. He did the next best thing; he sealed the fox into a child born on that very same night."

Naruto blinked, and then asked the fatal question. "Then… who was the baby?"

Instead of answering, Kurama whipped all of his tails from behind him so that she could see them. Naruto, who could only count up to ten, added up the tails he had.

She gulped, and then started to count, pointing at each one. "One… two… three…" she stopped to look at Kurama, who was silently urging her on. "Four… five… six… seven… eight…"

There, at the furthest end, was the last tail, moving behind Kurama like it had a mind of its own. "Nine…" she whispered.

"You see brat. I am the nine tailed fox, Kyuubi, and you girl, are my prison." Kurama stated confidently to the little girl. He waited for the moment when she would scream and disappear from her subconscious mind, never to see him again, or at least for a very long time he hoped.

Instead, the girl just stood there, staring at him; again.

However, before he could say anything Naruto asked. "So… what's your name?"

This time, Kurama was really baffled by the young girl and yet still confused by what she meant. In order to understand the small human and how her brain functioned, he choose his next words with the most careful consideration and upmost sensitivity. "Speak sense, monkey."

Naruto huffed, folding her arms and sticking her tongue out in jest. "Kyuubi is not a name, just like Hokage isn't a name. Maybe I was right, your name must sound like poop if you don't want to tell me." She challenged, and then blew a raspberry for good measure.

As the grotesque sound resomated through out his otherwise silent prison, the fox contemplated. To Kurama it didn't make sense that this small girl should wasn't cowering on the ground before him at the call of his given name. "Why aren't you running away like a normal, sane human would? Are you of ill mind?"

The child ignored the slight, but she might have just not realised she had been insulted. It was hard to tell. "Old-man hokage told me that I should see what a person is like before I believe what other people tell me. You don't seem that scary to me, you're very funny and weird. I want you to be my friend, will you be?"

Kurama didn't know whether to feel insulted, complimented, laugh or cry. It felt like he would become the laughing stock of the bijuu at this rate.

"I don't know whether it is your own stupidity or it is simply that you are different from other humans but it is, I have to admit, a refreshing change from being feared all of the time. I am not opposed to being your ally, so yes… I will become your 'friend'." He barely refrained from emulating the ellipsis with his clawed digits.

Naruto smiled at Kurama, clapping her hands. She then asked. "So, can I come back tomorrow and speak to you again?"

"No." He'd rather she didn't but the fox had a funny feeling that mere words were not going to stop her from doing what she wanted.

And as he predicted she took it in her stride; meaning that she would most likely be returning tomorrow. He resisted the urge to groan. "So…" She started, "How do I get out of here?"

"Make yourself want to go back to the real world." Kurama answered, tired of the small human and wanting her to be rid of her. "Imagine yourself in your home, and all of the senses you cannot feel, hear, smell or see in your mind."

"Ok." Naruto turned to the doors leaving the prison. "What is your name by the way?"

"Kurama; now leave me in peace."

She waved goodbye before disappearing from inside her mind. Alone again, Kurama shuffled back into the shadows of his cage. He lay down and closed his eyes. Talking to himself, he muttered. "Naruto Uzumaki… what a pest you are."

After she had left her mind, Naruto woke up on her bed, a thin blanket wrapped round her. Too much on her mind to sleep, she kicked the blanket off her with her small legs and walked over to the window of her allocated room at the orphanage. She looked at the full moon in all its glory, thinking about Kurama and how he was not at all how the stories portrayed him to be.

Hey, long time no see. Its been a while since I've written this story and so when I came back to it I kinda cringed a bit at the writing. I decided to rewrite it and change the direction this story was going in slightly. I've finished the next chapter and the one after that is currently being written.

Its been about three years I think since I initially started this, so a lots happened since then. Please review, I'd very much appreciate it.